Rukmini Vasanth on losing her father Colonel Vasanth Venugopal

Rukmini Vasanth who is awaiting the release of her film Kantara Chapter 1 and also starring in Yash's Toxic and NTR's Dragon, speaking to scribes, shared her feelings on losing her father Colonel Vasanth Venugopal in Uri in 2007.

She said "It left a lasting impact on me because I was a child when we lost our father. At that point, to see my mother, whose life has been completely rocked and changed, take her raw pain and find a way to channel that to other people, to find a way to spread the immense privilege that reached our family, to find a way to disperse to people who don't have access was moving to me. It instilled a strong sense of philanthropy, of taking your pain and making it productive."

She continued "It's a great deal to isolate yourself from your particular pain and reach other people who may be suffering in the same way. It builds a sense of community. One of the most wonderful things that our Veer Ratna foundation does is that they organise three-day workshops for wives and children of martyrs. And those workshops become a sense of community and togetherness,"

Colonel Vasanth Venugopal is Karnataka's first recipient of the Ashoka Chakra, India's highest peacetime military decoration while Rukmini Vasanth's mother is closely association with a foundation called Veer Ratna that focusses on helping war widows.